Champions Trophy pushed back to Sept 12

The Champions Trophy in Pakistan has been pushed back by a day to September 12 amid PCB claims that 9/11 was never meant to be the starting date for the eight-nation tournament.

Shafqat Naghmi, a senior official of the board said the tournament was always supposed to start on September 12 when asked about reports that the ICC was wary of starting the event on the anniversary of the deadly 9/11 terror attacks on the United States.

"From what I know it was always going to start on September 12," Naghmi said but his claim appeared debatable as the schedule of the Champions Trophy on the official website of the ICC still has Pakistan playing West Indies on 9/11 in Lahore.

The ICC had first released the groupings and itinerary of the tournament on March 22 and the itinerary has remained unchanged on their website.

"It was always September 12 as far as we know," Naghmi maintained and declined to explain the schedule on the ICC website.

Sources said the mega-event has been delayed by a day and the secretariat of the tournament at Lahore has been informed about this.

The decision was taken at the executive board meeting of the ICC in Dubai some weeks ago.

The 9/11 start date for the event was also under review because of the security concerns already being raised by some teams and players associations over having the event in Pakistan.